Play Report 27 — The Embassy

The first half of this session involved Hant’s player explaining the events of the prior session to Akela’s and Almuund’s players. Questions are asked about the various denizens of the nightmare, and answered to the extent of revealed player knowledge. A plan begins to form: the party has the cash to spend some time resting so that Hant can purify his spells and regain lost points of ferocity, so in three days time the party will return to hurt the snake. Until then, Almuund and Akela will pursue the plan of gathering intel about dirigibles.

The first step in this process is to attend the meeting secured with the Occult-Futurist ambassador Sala. Almuund and Akela purchase nicer outfits for the occasion.

When they arrive at the warehouse that Sala and company occupy, they are promptly let in. The interior is dark and separated into smaller rooms by partitions that the Occult-Futurists have raised. Individual rooms are lit by electric bulbs that hum ominously. The ambassador meets them in a room with a large table, upon which sits a topographical map under a glass pane to be written on + erased. He greets them, revealing that he knows their names, though he does not know where they are from. Almuund and Akela pick up on this and are happy to leave him only knowing that they were recently dwelling in Catage.

Akela tells Sala that the party are historians, interested in aviation. Sala is happy to give a spiel on the wonders of flight as discovered by Riccamino. He recounts a history of the development of airships via the gasses released from Riccamino’s factories, giving the process an idyllic framing. When Akela asks to see an airship directly, he is hesitant, but sees an opportunity — feigning a concern for maintaining mutual cooperation, he says that she has been cooperative in the past and relents in the hope that it will serve to make her continue to do so in the future. What this really will buy him is easier surveillance of a weirdo. He shows them Rubello’s reports on the party, which seem to leave out the threats of violence.

Akela and Almuund are led upstairs to an open-roofed warehouse level where a small airship sits, and given a chance to examine it on a surface level. I let both of them make research rolls, and the result of both is: “4-6 You discover no useful information, and may encounter someone you would rather avoid, at the GM’s discretion.”

The obvious answer to who this is has been set up, and into the room walks Rubello, spymaster of the crossroads. He delivers a letter to Sala, who reads it and immediately makes an apology to the party: he has been summoned on urgent business to the Molars of Leviathan, but he trusts Rubello to keep an eye on them and answer any questions. Sala boards the airship, and Rubello leads the party downstairs. Akela asks a few questions of him, trying to determine any facts she can about dirigible construction. He is unwilling to share much, so Akela changes tactics: she tries to goad him into letting more slip. She alternates between implying Rubello is cowardly for letting his national loyalties tie him down while also questioning what he thinks of the people he is spying on. Rubello stolidly states that he is unbothered by the accusations of evil-doers, and that he cannot be shamed into rash action like the mewling fools of catage pining after a lost king.

Akela says that he knows where to find her if he wants a fight. He does in fact know this.